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TBT: Ghost Story

Happy Thursday. Here’s a flashback to 2011, when Jim Butcher released Book 13 in the Dresden Files series. I’m still loving Harry today.

****

When Jim Butcher’s 13th Dresden Files novel, Ghost Story, was released, I devoured it gluttonously. I tried to take it easy, really I did, but I just wanted to find out what had happened sooo badly.

Well, I wasn’t disappointed, exactly … it was just a really long wait, and the novel didn’t wrap up all the points that I wanted to see disposed of. Plus, the novel ends in another bit of a cliff hanger, which I don’t recall the earlier books doing. Earlier books would include a brief little sum up at the end, as Harry recounted for the reader … not so much here.

Still, dear God, I love Harry’s sense of humor. He is such a huge dork, and I love it. I mean, come on:

At the end of the day . . . some son of a bitch had freaking killed me. That’s not the kind of thing you can just let stand.

I’d fallen victim to one of the other classic blunders, along with not getting involved in a land war in Asia and never going in against a Sicilian when death was on the line.

Kindle Locations 5885-5886

“Grenades!” I ordered, in a firm and manly tone that did not sound at all like a panicked fourteen-year-old.

Kindle Locations 6092-6093

This book is great, although not what I expected. Butcher spent the prior novel slowly tearing Harry down as he loses everything, including his life. Ghost Story picks up six months after Harry’s death, as Harry’s ghost (or is it?) is sent back to Chicago to solve his own murder.

SPOILER ***

Finally, it’s revealed that Harry is, essentially, his own murderer – prior to accepting Mab’s offer to become the Winter Knight, Harry called in a favor from the Hellhound, Kincaid, who kills him at the end of the last book. However, Harry had Molly erase the memory …

As I read the book, I was wondering how Butcher was going to get Harry out of this one – and about halfway through I noted that I was going to be furious if Harry solving his own murder reset time to just before his death, so that the events of the last six months were erased. Happily, that didn’t happen – the world is a mess. Harry’s destruction of the Red Court left a huge power vacuum that has been filled by all kinds of baddies, and Murphy has teamed up with a group of Dresden sidekicks, including the Alphas and Waldo Butters (who now, awesomely, has custody of Bob the skull). Fighting the powers of darkness, etc., has put Murphy in a bad place (she’s lost her job with CPD), and I’m looking forward to seeing how that plays out when Harry comes back in the next book.

That’s actually one of my complaints – This book didn’t do much to forward the Harry and Murphy relationship which disappointed me. I was also frustrated at the very narrow worldview we get – it’s a function of the first person p.o.v., I just wanted to know more about what was happening out in the world, and with the White Counsel, etc.

Oh, and seriously – Thomas and Justine just figured out the solution to their little intimacy problem? I had that idea books ago –